It used to be a much larger chess festival, but even so it's nice that the GRENKE sponsors and organizers have put together a strong tournament that partially fills in the gap left by the apparently dearly departed Linares super-tournament. This one is a six player double-round robin in Baden-Baden, Germany starring three players from the world elite and three very strong German GMs (one of whom, Naiditsch, is an on-again, off-again member of the first group as well). Here are the pairings for round 1:

Arkadij Naiditsch (2716) - Daniel Fridman (2667)

Michael Adams (2725) - Viswanathan Anand (2780)

Fabiano Caruana (2757) - Georg Meier (2640)

Except for the last round, play begins each day at 3 p.m. local time = 2 p.m. GMT/9 a.m. ET.

Reader Comments (1)

I was surprised to see caruana listed as playing here. Surely the guy needs a break? I know he's the new guy in the top ten, and therefore gets lots of invites, but playing all the time is a guaranteed way to drop out of the top ten.

Good line up though. Adams is a strong player, and Anand appears revitalised after defending the world title. Should be a good tourney!